Clijsters moves a step closer to major ambition

With the towering lights of the Manhattan skyline providing a magical backdrop to the tennis being played at Flushing Meadows in Queens, the women's championships at the US Open finally generated some excitement and tension yesterday with a couple of pulsating matches on what was billed as "ladies' night".

And it was Kim Clijsters who took centre stage on the Arthur Ashe Stadium, as, for the first time during this grand slam event, the men were given the night off and the evening session was dedicated solely to the women. All four women did not disappoint during the first two quarter-finals that were played yesterday, their event at last producing some tennis that was worthy of the stage and a prime-time television audience.

American Venus Williams had dressed for the occasion, bringing multiple sequins and pieces of jewellery to the court as well as her racket-bag, but it was the Belgian, one of the most personable and unassuming of players, who stole the night. Clijsters came from a set and 4-2 down against Williams to win 11 of the last 13 games and achieve a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory that finished half an hour past midnight.

Though the match had started slowly, it suddenly burst into life during the second set with seven breaks of serve in eight games and the crowd began to scream and holler their encouragement with all the enthusiasm and ear-popping volume that New York City can muster. At the moment of victory Clijsters was so happy that if the chair umpire has produced a handbag she probably would have danced around it on the blue concrete.

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Clijsters will play Maria Sharapova, the 18-year-old top seed, in the semi-finals. A shrieking Sharapova had to withstand the groundstrokes from her fellow Russian, Nadia Petrova, for a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win that took her into the last four for the first time at the US Open, the final slam of the season.

Clijsters described the victory as possibly the most satisfying of her career. She missed most of last season with an injury to her left wrist, with her doctors at one stage warning the right-hander that she might never play competitively again. "This victory means a lot, especially after not knowing if I was going to be able to play at this level again," she said.

But what is really driving Clijsters here is that she is yet to win a grand slam title. She has appeared in four grand slam finals, including the final here two years ago when she was defeated by countrywoman Justine Henin-Hardenne, but lost them all, and that lack of success has almost certainly become a psychological block for her in the second week of a slam.

But Clijsters, with five hard-court titles this season, was the heavy favourite in the weeks leading up to the US Open, and probably remains so, especially after announcing on the eve of the tournament that she will retire in 2007 at the age of 24 (a clever way of deflecting some of the pressure). She certainly has the physique and the whiplash power from the baseline to succeed on the fast cement courts of New York City.

And Clijsters showed against Williams, with the rubber soles of her shoes squealing as she performed her splits-style ball retrieval, that she also has the determination. In the third set she punished a tiring Williams, who may have been suffering the after-effects of her fourth-round meeting with her younger sister, Serena - a poor match that had previously encapsulated the substantial gap between hype and reality in the women's event here.

Clijsters has won all three of her previous meetings with Sharapova. All have been on a concrete court, the most recent of which was a straight-sets victory in the final of Key Biscayne in March. Sharapova, who will be making her third appearance this year in a grand slam semi-final, has not reached the final of a major since her Wimbledon triumph last July.

Clijsters, a four-time loser in grand slam finals, knows she can't afford to dwell on her victory over Williams, with top-seeded Sharapova coming up in the semi-finals. "It's always great to come back against players like this, and this victory means a lot," she said. "But it's not over."

Roger Federer, the defending champion and Switzerland's world No 1, will play David Nalbandian in the men's quarter-finals after the Argentine defeated Italian Davide Sanguinetti over four sets.